Rhetorical%20Devices/Smiley%20Face%20Tricks

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Rhetorical Devices/Smiley Face Tricks

• Tricks of the writing trade to help you meet and
  exceed writing expectations.
• Ideas developed by Mary Ellen Ledbetter
• Powerpoint created by Gwen S. Thibadeau
• Revised and Editted by T. Bowman

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Why use Smiley Face Tricks???

• These writing techniques are common tools that
  ALL authors use.
• They are proven to add personality, voice, style,
  and reader interest.

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Tricolon (Magic 3)

• A technique using three words, phrases, or
  clauses written in parallel form and in
  succession.
• Also referred to as Parallel Structure.

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Tricolon

• A Tricolon (sometimes called the 'Rule of
  Threes') is really more of a general principle
  than a rhetorical technique, but it is very
  effective.
• For some reason, the human brain seems to absorb
  and remember information more effectively when it
  is presented in threes.
• There's a reason there were three Musketeers,
  why Goldilocks didn't meet four bears in the
  woods, why Charlie didn't employ only two Angels
  and why Curly, Larry Mo didn't have 'and
  George' tagged on.

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Tricolon--Example

• After school each day, I typically drive home
  with my children, complete homework, and talk
  about the day.

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One Of President Obama's Favorites

• There are twenty two Tricolon examples used in
  his inauguration speech alone and fourteen in his
  speech in Prague (to take two speeches at
  random)! Here are a few
• I stand here today humbled by the task before
  us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed,
  mindful of the sacrifices borne by our
  ancestors.
• Instead, they knew that our power grows through
  its prudent use our security emanates from the
  justness of our cause, the force of our example,
  the tempering qualities of humility and
  restraint."
• Few would have imagined that the Czech Republic
  would become a free nation, a member of NATO, a
  leader of a united Europe.
• Rules must be binding. Violations must be
  punished. Words must mean something

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Tricolon Example

• Before We watched the confetti.
• After We watched the confetti fall from the
  sky, skip across the ground in the breeze, and
  tumble into the canal. (Green, The Fault in Our
  Stars, 163)
• Your Turn We watched.

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Hyphenated Modifier

• A compound adjective or adverb created by
  hyphenating multiple words together that work as
  one word.

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HM--Example

• Some of her students sat in their
  why-do-I-have-to-be-here postures while others
  exuded eagerness.

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Hyphenated Modifier

• Literary Example I slumped seated against a
  wall, heaving watered-down coughs. (Green, The
  Fault in Our Stars, 200)
• Your turn I slumped.

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Imagery/Specific Details

• Also known as imagery, this technique appeals to
  the senses and includes enough detail to allow
  the reader to identify with the description.

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Imagery/SD--Example

• The autumn leaves blew over the moonlit
  pavement in such a way as to make the girl who
  was moving there seem fixed to a sliding walk,
  letting the motion of the wind and the leaves
  carry her forward. ... The trees overhead made
  a great sound of letting down their dry
  rain. ? Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

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Imagery/SD--Example

• The greatest of funeral fires wound up to the
  clouds, it roared in front of the mound. Heads
  melted, wounds burst open, while blood gushed
  forth from the gashes in the bodies. Their
  mightiest men had departed. (unknown, Beowulf)

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Imagery/SD--Example

• It was about forty yards to the gallows. I
  watched the bare brown back of the prisoner
  marching in front of me. He walked clumsily with
  his bound arms, but quite steadily, with that
  bobbing gait of the Indian who never straightens
  his knees. At each step his muscles slid neatly
  into place, the lock of hair on his scalp danced
  up and down, his feet printed themselves on the
  wet gravel. And once, in spite of the men who
  gripped him by each shoulder, he stepped slightly
  aside to avoid a puddle on the path.
• It is curious, but till that moment I had never
  realized what it means to destroy a healthy,
  conscious man. When I saw the prisoner step aside
  to avoid the puddle, I saw the mystery, the
  unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short
  when it is in full tide. This man was not dying,
  he was alive just as we were alive. All the
  organs of his body were working--bowels digesting
  food, skin renewing itself, nails growing,
  tissues forming--all toiling away in solemn
  foolery. His nails would still be growing when he
  stood on the drop, when he was falling through
  the air with a tenth of a second to live. His
  eyes saw the yellow gravel and the gray walls,
  and his brain still remembered, foresaw,
  reasoned--reasoned even about puddles. He and we
  were a party of men walking together, seeing,
  hearing, feeling, understanding the same world
  and in two minutes, with a sudden snap, one of us
  would be gone--one mind less, one world less.
• ("A Hanging" by George Orwell)

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Imagery/SD

• Your turn Expand using imagery/specific details
  for effect.
• -Write about a favorite holiday memory.

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Repetition for Effect

• As a rhetorical device, it could be a word,
  phrase, full sentence, or a poetical line,
  repeated to emphasize its significance in the
  entire text.

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Rep. for Effect Anaphora

• Anaphora A rhetorical device that repeats the
  same word or words at the beginning of two
  successive phrases or clauses, often alongside
  PARALLELISM and using a TRICOLON.
• For us, they packed up their few worldly
  possessions and travelled across oceans in search
  of a new life. For us, they toiled in sweatshops
  and settled the West endured the lash of the
  whip and ploughed the hard earth. For us, they
  fought and died, in places like Concord and
  Gettysburg Normandy and Khe Sahn (Barack
  Obama)

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Anaphora

• "But one hundred years later, the Negro still is
  not free. One hundred years later, the life of
  the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles
  of segregation and the chains of discrimination.
  One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a
  lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast
  ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years
  later, the Negro is still languished in the
  corners of American society and finds himself an
  exile in his own land" (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

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Rep. for Effect Epiphora (also known as
Epistrophe)

• Definition A rhetorical device that repeats the
  same word or phrase at the end of two successive
  phrases or clauses.
• "A day may come when the courage of men fails,
  when we forsake our friends and break the bonds
  of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of
  wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men
  comes crashing down, but it is not this day. This
  day we fight!" - King Aragorn (from the movie
  'The Return of the King)

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Rep. for Effect Epiphora (also known as
Epistrophe)

• "It was a creed written into the founding
  documents that declared the destiny of a
  nation Yes, we can. It was whispered by slaves
  and abolitionists as they blazed a trail towards
  freedom through the darkest of nights Yes, we
  can. It was sung by immigrants as they struck out
  from distant shores and pioneers who pushed
  westward against an unforgiving wildernessYes,
  we can.
• (Barack Obama)

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Epiphora--Example

• When all of my friends made fun of me for
  falling down the stairs, you didnt. When
  everyone else had left me out of the game, you
  didnt. When the team made me sit on the bench,
  you didnt. When all of the soldiers came home
  from the war, you didnt.

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Rep. for Effect

• Your turn Use anaphora epiphora to add
  emphasis to your writing.
• Describe a someone who is a hero to you.

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Figurative Language

• This technique finds new and creative ways to
  describe people, places, things, and ideas.
• Similesmetaphorshyperbolepersonification, etc.
• It incorporates fresh and creative similes and
  metaphors, not clichés.

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FL- Example

• She graduated. It was not until then that she
  realized what freedom really was. Finally, she
  was soaring through the air, wings spread wide.

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Figurative Language

• Night came walking through Egypt swishing her
  black dress. ? Zora Neale Hurston, Moses, Man
  of the Mountain

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Figurative Language

• Your turn
• -Write a sentence personifying one of the
  following
• peace
• death
• morning

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Elaboration/Expanded Moment

• This technique involves the writer leaving the
  main story line to go into the characters/reader
  s mind and explain a related experience or idea.

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Elaboration/EM Example

• After the car accident, I held my fathers head
  cradled in my lap.  I talked to him and tried to
  keep him conscious for as long as possible.  I
  reminded him of the time we went fishing, and as
  we tried to load the boat onto the trailer, he
  slipped and fell, scattering fish all in the mud
  on the edge of the lake.  I stood by the truck
  and laughed as he struggled to stand up. 
  Suddenly, I heard the police sirens, and I told
  my father as he struggled to keep his eyes open
  that help was almost here.  He died before the
  police arrived.

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Elaboration/Expanded Moment

• Speak
• Count to twenty. Now imagine walking into
  Starbucks. As you make your way up to the
  counter, the delicate smell of brewing coffee
  arouses your senses. You politely ease your way
  through the herd of people gathered in front of
  the register and meet the eyes of the cashier.
  She acknowledges your presence with a slight nod
  as irritable grunts set in around you. You open
  your mouth to begin speaking, but nothing comes
  out. Silence. You continue to stand there, lips
  spread wide. Embarrassment overtakes you as the
  herd glares in your direction. The cashier
  remains motionless, unsure of how to cope with
  the silence. As time stretches onwards, your
  cheeks burn with shame. The herd begins to giggle
  uneasily, and some even go as far as to point.
  Twenty seconds pass before you are able to break
  the silence with a mumbled, "M-M-M-M-May I
  h-h-have a g-g-grande l-l-l-latte?" With an
  awkward smile, the cashier reaches for your gift
  card, and you retreat with your head tucked deep
  into your chest.
• It was moments like these that made me truly
  ashamed of who I was. Ever since the age of six,
  I have stuttered. And before I traveled to Munich
  this past summer, I wished every morning that I
  would wake up without my stutter. I would often
  avoid answering the phone, even conversing with
  my family, anything to abstain from speaking. I
  was terrified of what other people would think of
  me when I stuttered, and so in an attempt to
  escape humiliation, I would simply keep quiet.
  Yet, I could no longer live my life running from
  the opportunities I so fervently desired to
  experience. I craved to be myself, to do the
  things that I wanted to do, regardless of my
  stutter. And so I gathered the courage to spend
  three weeks alone in Germany.

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Elaboration/Expanded Moment

• See also Weisel, Night (pp. 57-58)
• Your turn Describe a time of deep emotion in
  your life, whether it was a time of deep pain,
  deep regret, deep fear, deep joy, etc. Slow down
  and expand the moment for your reader.

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Elaboration/Expanded Moment

• Exercise Write a scene where you wake up in a
  dark house after hearing an odd sound. Expand the
  moment to build suspense.

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Humor

• Writers use humor for many reasons... not only
  to create a connection with the reader and cause
  him/her to laugh, but also to lighten the mood in
  a tense or serious situation.

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HumorExample

• Sitting at the funeral home waiting for the
  services to begin, the old man knew what he would
  miss most about his wife of sixty years her
  lying in bed waving the covers up and down,
  giggling as she vented her toot.

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HumorExample

• "And youyes, you, Justinwere the guilty party
  who, after I took off my shoes to enjoy the hot
  pavement in early spring, put a frog in them. Of
  course, I didn't look at the shoes when I put
  them back on it was the squish that gave your
  prank away." (Liz)

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Humor

• Exercise Write a paragraph that places a
  character in an environment or situation you
  wouldn't expect him to be.  Example A city boy
  in a ballet class or a pig in a chicken coop. 
  Exaggerate the circumstances to create humor.

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Full Circle Ending

• Writers will often begin a piece of writing with
  a key word or phrase, develop the piece, and will
  bring the reader back to the key word or phrase
  at the ending.

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FCE--Example

• She was fat and happy.  The day she gave birth
  to her first child was amazing.  Everything was
  perfect.  The child had a beautiful head of hair,
  all ten fingers and toes, and slept rather than
  crying like most babies do.  Now, as an old woman
  sitting in her favorite chair visiting with three
  of her great grandchildren, again she was fat and
  happy.

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Full-Circle Ending

• Title Seeing With the Heart
• Concluding sentence You never realize how
  terrific a moment can be until you see it with
  your heart. (Meeker, Seeing with the Heart)

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Full-Circle Ending

• Introduction One of the cool things about being
  Mike Weir is that you get to do whatever you want
  on Mike Weir Day, which Utah governor Michael
  Leavitt declared on May 12, 2003.
• Conclusion Weir was happy with his game as he
  left Chicago, but he was happier to be heading
  home, where every day is Mike Weir Day.(Sports
  Illustrated)

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Full-Circle Ending

• Your turn
• Revise a Quick Write in your working portfolio to
  include a full-circle ending.

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Rhetorical Question

• Definition A rhetorical question is asked just
  for effect or to lay emphasis on some point
  discussed when no real answer is expected

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Rhetorical Question

• What made you think of love and tears and birth
  and death and pain? (Stewart, Creation)
• Will no one tell me what she sings?
  (Wordsworth, The Solitary Reaper)

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Practice Makes Perfect!!!

• For the remainder of class ASSIGNMENT A 300-400
  word descriptive narrative essay about a time in
  your life when you made a choice that did not
  make you feel good. You may want/need to
  embellish (to improve by adding details often
  fictitious details.) the story a bit. The idea is
  for you to tell a story that is both descriptive
  and entertaining. Use 5-7 Smiley Face Tricks in
  your essay. Have fun with this. Remember, the
  first step in writing an essay is to BRAINSTORM.
  Methods of brainstorming stream of
  consciousness writing and list-making

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Asyndeton

• Definition a stylistic device used to
  intentionally omit conjunctions between words,
  phrases, or clauses.
• He was a bag of bones, a floppy doll, a broken
  stick, a maniac. (Kerouac, On the Road)